Running From The Dark
by 10WeepingAngel
Summary: How the last of humanity chose to become the Toclafane to escape the dark.
1. Chapter 1: Utopia

**A/N: This is my first Doctor Who story. Please read and review!**

**Summary: This is the story of how the last of humanity chose to become the Toclafane. It might end up just being a one-shot, but I hope to add more chapters to it later. **

**Running From The Dark**

Hanna stared at the great machine that promised salvation. It would turn them immortal, they said. With this grand new invention, they could live. They could escape the dark and the cold, the terrible cold that burned and invaded. The oxygen shell saved them from freezing to death, but it was not enough. They could still feel the cold, aching in their bones.

Hanna knew that there could be no escape. They had fled to Utopia. Hanna had been there that wonderful day when they were finally able to fly. It was a legend now. The day the Doctor came with Captain Jack and Martha Jones, the kind, wonderful, people who helped them to fly.

Utopia was supposed to be the escape. The skies would be made of diamonds, there would be light and warmth, and they would not have to fear the dark that crept through the universe as the stars died one by one.

Humanity had survived for 500 trillion years, but everything was dying now. There was no hope but Utopia and Utopia offered no escape, just empty dreams. There were no diamonds, just the dark.

So they built the great forges. They needed light and warmth but even a thousand forges weren't enough, couldn't be enough. Everything was dead, even the stars were black and cold. They were the remnants, the last of humanity screaming at the dark.

But they said this plan would work. They could live forever. They would fly across the universe and find a way to escape the end of everything. This was their new hope, their _only_ hope.

Hanna didn't believe it. It was just another Utopia, another useless dream. She knew there were no diamonds, they all knew now, but there was no end to the desperate, wild, hope of humanity.

So they would follow every impossible plan, _any _impossible plan. They would lock themselves in shells, impenetrable metal spheres armed to blaze across the universe. They still believed that there had to be a way out. There was _always_ a way out.

Hanna had come to this meeting like they all had come: desperate, afraid, but willing to believe in any hope that she could escape the dark. She had sworn that she had only come to listen. She would _not_ be a fool, would _not_ fling herself off a cliff because a madman told her she would fly. But this…

She stared at the contraption. They said that it would tear them apart and make them new and shiny and free. With this they could escape the dark together. She knew there was no chance but she could _feel_ the dark, waiting, hungry. What choice was there?

Hanna closed her eyes and joined the others, waiting in line to be made new. Just like the line for the rocket, it was a chance to fly, and Hanna was desperate to fly, as desperate as they all were. They knew what waited here.

As she hurried forward with the crowd, one thought echoed through her mind, through all their minds. _"We must escape the dark, and the terrible, terrible, cold. We must run and run and run!"_


	2. Chapter 2: The Master's Come to Save Us

**A/N: Yes, it's multi-chaptered. I posted this earlier than I thought I would. Enjoy, and please review!**

**Chapter 2: The Master's Come to Save Us**

Hanna stared at the spinning display in the front of her shell. It showed her nothing but the dark of empty space. There was nothing to indicate that she had found salvation. There never was.

They had torn themselves apart, broken themselves into bits and locked themselves in shells just in the hope of surviving long enough to find a way to escape. Day after day they traveled far and wide, through nothing but dark and cold. There was nothing left. They were the only things that were even alive in the universe, and what they had could barely be called life.

Hanna knew that they had chosen wrong. The shells were a mistake. They were inside each other's heads, could see everything, hear everything, remember everything, but even closer together than any people had ever been they could not find a solution.

All they wanted was to live, to escape the relentless dark and the terrible cold. It was all that was left now, that need. Just to see light and feel warmth again, that was all that they wanted, but there was no way.

They would search forever, tear the universe apart for this. It was their only goal, had been since long before they boarded a rocket bound for Utopia. This consumed them, consumed Hanna as it did all the others. She knew they should never have done this, but she _had_ to search. _There was always a way out._

Today should have been like all other days; the endless searching, endless despair, but it was not. Hanna felt it through the bond that joined all of what was left of humanity. It was something she had not felt in longer than she could remember. It was hope. They had found something.

Hanna turned instantly, teleporting back to Utopia, back to where the feeling originated. She arrived on the barren plain, blazing with furnaces and spotted with the shapes of hovering spheres. There were far more than usual. Everyone had felt it. Everyone was coming.

She sped towards the ground and saw a sight that was so unexpected as to be nearly impossible. There was a big blue box sitting on the ground, and outside it stood a man and a woman. Hanna had not seen actual, honest-to-god people in what seemed like forever. Not since the shells, that last hope and desperate folly.

Thousands of voices were rising, everyone wanting to speak to the miraculous man with the box. _"Who are you? Who are you?"_ The voices asked frantically. And then, one voice, laced with desperate, foreign hope, _"Have you come to save us?"_ Other voices joined in, a wild chorus, _"Save us sir, please save us from the dark! We must escape, we have to run and run and run! Save us sir, save us!"_

The man laughed aloud, and the humans stilled, floating in their shells. There was not a sound as the man replied at last, his words heavy with power and authority. "I am the Master. This is my companion, Lucy. And perhaps, if you're very good, I'll bring you home."

More questions flew at that, even more desperate than before. _"Master, why have you come? Where are you from? How can you bring us home? What home is left in all the endless dark?"_

The Master spoke calmly, while his companion shuddered at his side. She gazed around like she had never seen anything more horrible than the land before her.

The Master held her close as he addressed the humans, saying, "I am a Time Lord, and that," he pointed to his box, "is my TARDIS. I can use it to bring you all to Earth, in the 21st century. You could live in the light again, in a living universe. What do you say?" He grinned and waited for a response.

Billions of voices rose at that, all the humans calling out, _"Yes! Please, Master help us, help us, bring us home!"_ Hanna knew that it could not be so simple. She could see it in the way the Master scanned the ranks of spheres, and in the hint of madness in his eyes. He would not save them for free.

As she knew it, they all knew it and voices rang out once more, "_What do you want in return for this, Master?" _He laughed, surprised, it seemed, but not at the question. He was surprised at how quickly they had realized that he wanted something.

"Humans," he said with a sigh. "You're all born bargaining. Yes, I want something in return, but it's nothing you won't want to give. If I return you to Earth, you will blaze across the universe. You will establish an empire lasting 100 trillion years. You can live that time in the light and the warmth, laying waste to the galaxies that stand against you. All that time in the light will be yours." He smiled then, a smile full of madness, "And I will be your Master, and the Master of all."

Hanna heard his words, and as he spoke she could almost see what he described, in the desperate madness born of so many years searching for salvation. She saw the human race, shining as they flew across the universe, galaxies burning in their wake. She saw blazing stars and burning planets.

They were nothing, just warmth, and light. Escape from the cold and the dark. She knew that this was the hope that they had waited so long for, come to them at last, and her voice rang out with all the others, _"Yes, yes, yes! Take us home and we will conquer! We will fly and blaze and slice! You will be our Master!"_

The Master smiled his mad smile. "Well then," he said. "Let's go."

Hanna flew behind him into the box falling once more into line with the others, and knew that this was right. _"We have to run and run and run,"_ she thought. _"And there is nowhere else to go." _


End file.
